Cleaning bubble rollers.

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jbo_c
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Cleaning bubble rollers.

Post by jbo_c »

How do y’all clean them? At the very least, they’ll slowly fill with epoxy, right? Are they semi-disposable in that you can use them a few times before they’re too full of cured epoxy to be effective?

I cleaned mine with vinegar and a toothbrush, but since it was a long session, there is still cured epoxy toward the middle.

Jbo

joe2700
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Re: Cleaning bubble rollers.

Post by joe2700 »

I wipe mine off with denatured alcohol on a rag. After several uses once the channels are filled up I burn the epoxy with a plumbers torch to make it charred and brittle then knock it off quickly with a wire wheel. I tried just the wire wheel but the epoxy is almost as hard as the aluminum so doesn't work well. Once burned it's easy, but do it outside!

fallguy1000
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Re: Cleaning bubble rollers.

Post by fallguy1000 »

jbo_c wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 6:54 pm How do y’all clean them? At the very least, they’ll slowly fill with epoxy, right? Are they semi-disposable in that you can use them a few times before they’re too full of cured epoxy to be effective?

I cleaned mine with vinegar and a toothbrush, but since it was a long session, there is still cured epoxy toward the middle.

Jbo
Leave in acetone. Use dental pick to clean now and then. Got a whole boat from mine.
My boat build is here -------->

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OneWayTraffic
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Re: Cleaning bubble rollers.

Post by OneWayTraffic »

If you are organised and can get it into acetone before it gels, all good. I'm not so organised, but a wire brush, heat gun and propane torch work too. Worse comes to worse, a few more metal rollers will not be the biggest wastage on the build.

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Knottybuoyz
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Re: Cleaning bubble rollers.

Post by Knottybuoyz »

MEK will melt cured epoxy. I keep a container with some in it to degunk bubble busters. A stainless steel wire brush makes short work of it.
Yours Aye! Rick
"It's not the boat "you built" until you've sworn at it, bled on it, sweated over it, cried beside it and then threatened to haul the POS outside and burn it!"

piperdown
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Re: Cleaning bubble rollers.

Post by piperdown »

Knottybuoyz wrote: Tue Oct 25, 2022 7:23 am MEK will melt cured epoxy. I keep a container with some in it to degunk bubble busters. A stainless steel wire brush makes short work of it.
I'll have to try that. I was using what OWT and FG were doing, but sometimes I waited a bit too long to dump the rollers in my acetone pail. Then it was a pain to clean off.
Eric (aka, piperdown)

"Give an Irishman lager for a month and he's a dead man. An Irishman's stomach is lined with copper, and the beer corrodes it. But whiskey polishes the copper and is the saving of him." --> Mark Twain

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